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Stone Forest
The Stone Forest or Shilin (Chinese: 石林) is a notable set of limestone formations located in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China, known since the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 AD) as the "First wonder of the world". Geologists say the Stone Forest is a typical example of karst topography. Approximately 270 million years ago - during the carboniferous period of the Paleozoic era - the region was a vast expanse of sea. Over time, the movements of the lithosphere gradually caused a retreat of the waters and the rise of the limestone landscape. Due to constant erosion by the elements, the area finally developed into the present-day appearance. Since 2007, two parts of the site, the Naigu Stone Forest and Suogeyi Village have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites as part of the South China Karst. Shilin National Scenic Area covers an area of 350 km2 and is divided into seven scenic areas as follows: * Greater and Lesser Stone Forests - also known as the Lizijing Stone Forest * Naigu Stone Forest * Zhiyun Cave * Lake Chang (also known as Long Lake) * Lake Yue (also known as Moon Lake) * Dadie Waterfall * Qifeng Cave The legend of Ashima StoneForestGalley00.jpg StoneForestGalley01.jpg StoneForestGalley02.jpg StoneForestGalley03.jpg StoneForestGalley04.jpg StoneForestGalley05.jpg StoneForestGalley06.jpg StoneForestGalley07.jpg StoneForestGalley08.jpg StoneForestGalley09.jpg According to legend, based on an ancient poem, the Stone Forest is the birthplace of Ashima (Chinese: 阿诗玛), a beautiful girl of the Sani people of the Yi ethnic group. Ashima name literally means "as precious and bright as gold" in the language of the Yi people. The legend of Ashima reflects the national character and spirit of pursuing freedom of the Sani people, highlighting the kindness and beauty, wisdom and power, diligence and braveness of the character and demonstrates the human ideal that light will final substitute darkness, kindness and beauty will triumph over infamy. It is called by the Sani people as "the song of our ethics". Ashima has become a name synonymous with beautiful and gentle Yi girls. Ethnographer Wang Wei transcribed the poem from a Sani elder in 1813 and published it with other folk tales in a scroll called "Tales from the Mountains". Nowadays, the legend has become a part of the daily life, wedding and funeral ceremonies and other customs of the Sani people, thus, sang from generation to generation among the people. The story of Ashima has been translated into more than 20 languages. Among the foreign translations are three Japanese versions (1957, 1960 and 1962) and the English version produced by long-time China resident, Gladys Yang, in 1957. Other editions have appeared in Romanian, Czech and French. A major film, Ashima, was released in 1964, directed by Liu Qiong, the first color film of the People's Republic of China. The figure of Ashima was of state interest as a vehicle for promoting ethnic minority and women’s issues in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Published versions of the epic presented Ashima first as a lovely, clever and defiant young woman who, according to Sani custom, has the right to choose her own marriage partner. A powerful landlord Rebu Bala hears of her beauty and dispatches escorts bearing gifts to force her into his clutches, as a wife for his repugnant son. Refusing the proposal, Ashima was kidnapped, brought at the landlord’s mountain lair, beaten and thrown into a dungeon. Her capable brother, Ahei, who has been away herding goats while she was captured, passes several tests (singing antiphonal folk songs, cutting down trees, sowing rice) and kills three tigers before he can rescue his sister. Though the rescue is successful, on the way home she dies in a flash flood conjured by the evil landlord. As the flood waters recede, she turns into a rock and appears as a vision and proclaims to her brother that she will forever be near her family and the villagers. Her brother becomes forlorn at her death and her spirit takes residence in a rock in the Stone Forest, where her echo was sometimes heard thereafter. By the late 1970s, Ashima was again being promoted as an icon of a nascent tourist industry in and around the geological wonder of fantastically shaped limestone karst formations of Stone Forest. By the late 1990s, the Stone Forest had been turned into a high-tech tourist attraction, combining the natural beauty of the limestone forest with laser light and hologram images of Ashima’s story. In the course of this development, Ashima’s brother Ahei has transformed into her lover - a strong, warmhearted, kind, honest and brave sheepherder - as pointed out by Margaret Swain at a recent conference at the Stone Forest. However, reading the Ashima poem, man can see easily that both versions (Ahei as brother of Ashima and Ahei as lover of Ashima) are modified versions of the original poem. It seems that Ashima didn't die in the flood conjured by the evil landlord. The original poem says that Ahei and Ashima entered a cave to sleep over the night. There the body of Ashima was stuck in the cave's stone wall by the Cliff God. Trying to bring the god a sacrifice, Ahei wanted to trick him bringing in the place of a white pig, a black one (painted in white mud). Discovering the trick, the Cliff God never released Ashima from the rock's trap. Sources * Books of Zhao Deguang, 2003 ** A Collection of Ashima Literature ** A Collection of Ashima Primary Data ** A Collection of Ashima Research Theses * Sofield, Trevor H.B., The Yi Nationality of Shilin Stone Forest, Yunnan Province, China: A Case Study in Indigenous Tourism